Open Plan Law Ltd

This Practice Note deals with the different rights used by businesses to protect against unfair business practices. It deals with legislation and regulation, misleading advertising, comparative advertising, the relationship between the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008 (BPR 2008) and the Trade Marks Act 1994, offences, enforcement, the advantages and disadvantages of BPR 2008, passing off and alternatives to an action under BPR 2008 or passing off.

Both consumers and brand owners can use the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPUTR 2008) in order to address unfair business practices including misleading statements or omissions and aggressive practices. There is a private right of redress for consumers under the Regulations which are also enforceable via the Chartered Institute of Trading Standards. In practice, a brand owner is likely to rely on their intellectual property rights and to assert trade mark infringement, passing off and/or design infringement instead of or as well as CPUTR 2008.

This Practice Note contains practical guidance on how the UK film and photography industry has adapted in order to comply with data protection law, which in the UK is primarily based on Assimilated Regulation (EU) 2016/679, the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. It also contains specific guidance on both the ICO’s Data protection and journalism code and the impact of data protection laws on release agreements.